With recent wider use of digital camera, the demand is increasing for printing with the digital camera being directly connected with a printer (recording device), that is, non-PC printing. Another increasing demand is for printing by setting a card type information memory medium detachably mountable to a digital camera directly in a printer to transfer the data, and printing them (another non-PC recording). Generally, the ink remaining amount in the ink container of the printer is checked on a display through a personal computer. In the case of the non-PC printing, this is not possible. However, capability of checking the ink remaining amount in the ink container is desired even in the non-PC printing. This is because if the user can be aware of the fact that ink remaining amount in the ink container is small, the user can exchange the ink container with a fresh one prior to stating printing operation, so that printing failure during the course of printing operation on a sheet can be avoided.
It is conventional to notify the user of such a state of the ink container using a display element such as a LED. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application Hei 4-275156 discloses that ink container which is integral with a recording head is provided with two LED elements, which are switched on depending on the ink remaining amount in two steps. Japanese Laid-open Patent Application 2002-301829 also discloses that ink container is provided with a lamp which is switched on depending on the ink remaining amount. The same also discloses that four ink containers used with one recording device are provided with said lamps, respectively.
In addition, in order to meet a demand for high image quality, light magenta ink, light cyan ink and so on become used in addition to the conventional four color (black, yellow, magenta and cyan) inks. Furthermore, uses of special color inks such as red ink or blue ink are proposed. In such a case, seven-eight color ink containers are used individually in an ink jet printer. Then, a mechanism for preventing the ink containers from being mounted at erroneous positions is desired. U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,535 discloses that engaging configurations between the carriage and the ink containers are made different from each other. By doing so, erroneous mounting (incorrect position) is prevented, when the ink containers are mounted on the carriage.
Even when the ink container is provided with a lamp, as described above, the main assembly side controller has to identify the ink container which is recognized as containing a small amount of the ink. To do this, it is necessary to identify the ink container for which the signal for turning the right lamp on. If, for example, the ink container is mounted on a wrong position, there is a liability that small ink remaining amount is displayed for another ink container which contains a sufficient amount of the ink. Therefore, the emission control for the displaying device such as a lamp has to have correct information of the carried positions of the ink containers.
As to a structure for assuring the correct carried positions of the ink containers, there is a structure in which the mutual configuration relations between the carrying portions and the associated ink containers are made different depending on the carrying positions. However, in such a case, it is required to manufacture ink containers which are different depending on the color and/or kind of the ink, with the result of disadvantages in terms of manufacturing efficiency and/or cost.
As another structure for accomplishing this, a signal line of a circuit which will be closed by connection between the electrical contact of the ink container and the main assembly side electrical contact at the carrying position of a carriage or the like, is provided substantially independently for each of the carrying positions. For example, the signal line for reading ink color information of an ink container out of the ink container, for controlling the actuation of a LED is provided for each of the carrying positions. With such a structure, if the read color information does not meet the carrying position, the erroneous mounting of the ink container is discriminated.
However, this structure results in increased number of signal lines. As mentioned hereinbefore, recent ink jet printers or the like use a greater number of kinds of inks to improve the print quality. The increase of the number of the signal lines increases the cost particularly in such printers. On the other hand, in order to reduce the number of wiring leads, it would be effective to employ a so-called common signal line using a bus connection, but simple use of such a common signal line as bus connection cannot determines the ink containers or the carrying positions of the ink containers.